NASCAR, as expected, announced Tuesday that it would eliminate the top-35 rule and return to the format it used to set fields before that rule was instituted in 2005.

The elimination of the top-35 rule was one of several changes announced by the sanctioning body, including reducing the Nationwide Series fields from 43 cars to 40 cars beginning in 2013.

The biggest change was how NASCAR will set fields next season.

In the Sprint Cup Series, the best 36 cars based on speed in qualifying make the field. The next six spots will be determined by owners points and one final spot will remain for a past champion. If there is no past champion, then another spot will be awarded to the next driver in owner points.

“This is a big win for our fans,” said NASCAR vice president of competition Robin Pemberton in a statement. “They’ll see the fastest cars earn their starting spots. This change adds intrigue, drama and excitement to qualifying.”

There will be no limit to the number of provisionals.

NASCAR did not consider heavily just having the best 43 cars in qualifying start a race.

“We felt like there always needed to be some sort of opportunity for a guy that has a bad day and points are worth something to make the field,” Pemberton said in a phone interview.

As far as how NASCAR will set the field for the Daytona 500, it will do it much like it had before the top-35 rule was put into effect. Qualifying speeds will determine the front row, then the 150-mile qualifying races will set the majority of the spots with the remainder of the field set by qualifying speed (among those remaining) and provisionals.

“The final details will come out with the entry blank,” Pemberton said during a teleconference. “But there will be a speed element that's in there along with a finishing order to the (qualifying races) that will be in there.

“Those final details haven't been worked out. But basically it all wraps around it being the fastest cars and also the ones that perform in the (qualifying races) to set the 500 lineup.”

Among other changes announced Tuesday:

• The qualifying order for Cup will be based on random draw instead of practice speeds. Pemberton said teams were using up more tires than usual in order to turn a fast lap in practice in order to get a good qualifying spot.

“It wound up looking like one practice was just a qualifying practice and we just didn’t feel like it was the best use of their time and tires,” Pemberton said. “It was very inefficient for the teams.”

• If qualifying is rained out, who gets in will be determined by the rulebook but the starting order for the race will be determined by practice speeds.

• Last year’s owner points will be used to set provisionals in race fields for the first three races, a reduction from the five it was previously.

• The Nationwide Series will keep its top-30 rule and the Camping World Truck Series will keep its top-25 rule, so the top 30 in owners points that enter a race in Nationwide and the top 25 that enter a race in trucks will be guaranteed spots in the field on a weekly basis.

NASCAR, which already had confirmed that each Cup organization would be allowed four tests at tracks that hold NASCAR national series events, announced that each Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series organization would be allowed two tests. Rookies in those series will get one additional test and NASCAR will pick two races to open up racetracks one day early for testing.

“We feel like it’s time to open that up and allow the teams to manage their testing and get back to facilities that host our events,” Pemberton said. “We made the decision at the end of 2008 to restrict testing, primarily for economic reasons. Now we believe it will be best for the garage and for the tracks to have some testing return in 2013.”

Pemberton said that many of the changes have been in the discussion phase for several months, if not more than a year.

“Early on when we looked at our top 35, we were going down a path of a more compressed weekend with our practices and qualifying, a number of the races were impounded,” he said. “It's something that's served us well for a period of time. But like other things, such as testing, the testing ban served us well for a period of time. Times change. We have to change with those.”